YES, HE CAN-O! Red-hot Robinson Cano, who is hitting .576 in his past eight games, went 3-for-4 last night, including a two-run home run in the seventh inning, in a 9-1 rout of the Orioles at the Stadium.N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg

Nine innings short of reaching the season’s one-third pole, it is clear who the Yankees’ best player and starting pitcher are.

Moving into the season, the favorites were Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira for the player. CC Sabathia was the prohibitive favorite on the mound.

Yet, Robinson Cano is the runaway player leader and a serious AL MVP candidate. And Phil Hughes is tied with Andy Pettitte as the premier pitcher, has the look of an All-Star and is in the early discussion for the AL Cy Young award.

Last night Cano and Hughes overpowered the lifeless Orioles during a 9-1 Yankees victory that was witnessed by 44,465 at Yankee Stadium and pushed the 33-20 Yankees’ winning streak to four.

Cano extended the longest hitting streak in the AL this year to 16 games by going 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs. Hughes improved to 7-1 and lowered his ERA to 2.54 with seven innings of six-hit, one-run pitching.

“He’s going to win a couple of batting titles. I just hope he continues what he started,” Jorge Posada said of Cano, who is batting .373 overall and hitting .471 (32-for-68) since May 17. “He’s seeing everything good. He feels good at the plate. I bet it looks like a big softball when the ball is thrown every time it gets to the plate.”

The biggest question about Cano in March was how he would handle hitting fifth in place of Hideki Matsui. Safe to say that hasn’t been a problem.

“Every time I go to the plate I expect good things,” said Cano, who singled and scored in the second and third innings when the Yankees scored four and two runs, respectively and smoked a two-run homer (team-leading 12th) to right in the seventh.

As for Hughes, he was the favorite going into spring training to win the No. 5 starter’s spot and accomplished that. Now, he is tied with Pettitte at 7-1 and pitching like the ace Sabathia is paid to be.

“Throw strike one and get ahead of the count,” Hughes said of his recipe to tame the Orioles. “Just do the things I have been doing.”

One of those things was staying away from a cut fastball that wasn’t behaving. After Miguel Tejada spanked an opposite-field double to right in the third, Hughes decided he had other options.

“It was flat,” Hughes said of the cutter to Tejada. “It wasn’t working for me and I decided to use other stuff.”

Hughes pitched out of mini-jams in the second and third, gave up a run in the sixth and departed after the seventh.

The All-Star Game is in Anaheim, Calif., a stadium Hughes rode his bike to as a youngster. His manager is the AL skipper. And with seven wins he is among the league leaders in that department as well as ERA.

“I have thought about it, it would be nice, but it’s not something I am too worried about yet,” Hughes said.

When it comes to the brutal Birds, the Yankees don’t worry about much. They have won seven of eight from them this year and go for a three-game sweep today with Sabathia looking to halt a personal slump.

Today is the 54-game mark and the season officially is 33 percent finished. All those who had Cano as the best player and Hughes the best chucker raise your hands.